Up early today for the airport. Set the alarm for 4:45 but woke up at 3am anyway. Tina did better than yesterday and woke at 2:30… Check out was automatic and the shuttle was there waiting, all good so far. Arrived for the usual security checks and went through pretty quickly but – shock horror – no lounge, seems that First Class on domestic American Airlines is a bit more premium economy. Through a bit too quickly and nothing much to do, very small terminal building. Flight was on time though so off to Dallas.

But, more shock horror, no in-flight entertainment! Rigged up the laptop for Tina so she watched half a film. Made it to Dallas half hour early, luggage straight through so nothing much to do but wait. Dallas is a massive airport, flights going everywhere. No free wif-fi so just a biscuit and starbucks. Getting tired now. Next plane is American eagle, a sort of junior American Airlines. More waiting. Got aboard the plane which was tiny – only three seats across and have to duck! Tina was worried but it seems ok. Bumpy ride, no meals or entertainment. Apparently Rapid City is 3 degrees and snowing. Oh dear. Pausing now as starting descent to Rapid City….

Ok so Rapid City was in fact 7 degrees, lovely clear skies and a welcome change to the cloud. Amazing turnaround, landed at 2.25 and had luggage and hired a car and was in the parking lot by 2.35. Regional airlines are the way to go, other than small planes it was good. Picked up our new 'home' for the next three weeks, put the clocks back another hour and decided to go see Mount Rushmore. GPS ready, Rushmore is only 25 miles. Problem with GPS, brought the device but only half the stand to attach it to the windscreen. Fail. Never mind, it’s propped up and talking to us.

. Lovely clean mountain roads, little traffic and clearly the low season. The Black Hills area looks amazing, huge open spaces dotted with snow fall, even today. Met a guy on the lay by who gave us a Mount Rushmore tip, everyone is so friendly. Sadly the tip was pants but it was a nice thought. We bought an annual parking pass (no choice) and headed into the park. The memorial is pretty spectacular, just like the jigsaw puzzle that brought us here. Nice clean areas, plenty of open space.

Back to Rapid City, check in at the holiday inn. Bit of a communications failure as little or no mobile reception but we do have free internet in the room. Off to Red Lobster for the snow crab and coconut shrimp then to wal-mart for a few bits. Getting prepared for the next 3,000 mile drive J

Comments

daveandsue
on May 14, 2010 at 08:48AM

Hi, all looks pretty amazing! Is the new home a camper? Think you'll enjoy that, they are really dinky with homes for everything. Thanks for getting Megan to include me in her journal, now I know what everyone is getting up to! We are all good here, another weekend coming up......my word where does the time go!Looking forward to the next episode, love Mum xxxxx

maria
on May 14, 2010 at 12:44PM

loving the updates sounds like your having a great time cant wait to read more

mum barb
on May 15, 2010 at 07:18AM

i didnt know you could do this so im just trying it out keeping up with you. all sounds very hectic. keep going xx